When I began prepping a lesson on "linear and nonlinear" functions, I knew it was time to rekindle student interest. Therefore, I thought up an easy game to bring a little competition into the classroom. Rather than the "smartest" kid winning each time, which usually causes my students to stray away from the activity, this required some luck and as well as concept comprehension. I call it Linear War.
Based off of the card game War, I decided to make a deck of cards, but mine only had 16. Of these cards there were 4 graphs, 4 equations, 4 tables, and 4 relations. Half of the cards were linear and half were nonlinear. I copied this deck so that everyone in the class had their own. Then, the fun began. Rules:
In pairs, begin with both decks of cards face down.
Each opponent will flip his or her top card over for both people to see.
The linear card trumps the nonlinear card.
In the case of a tie, the 2 cards "freeze" flip the next set of cards until one person wins and may collect frozen cards.
Play until one opponent wins by having all of the cards, or for a shorter game, play until the cards have been used once. Whoever has collected the most wins!
This game was definitely a hit in my class. Students kept asking for rematches. That's right, they were ASKING FOR MORE MATH! Not only was it fun, but students were able to practice determining what is a linear and nonlinear function. Plus, since cards used in battle could be 4 different categories, students were able to get a bigger picture understanding about how each method of displaying a function is still connected.
When I began prepping a lesson on "linear and nonlinear" functions, I knew it was time to rekindle student interest. Therefore, I thought up an easy game to bring a little competition into the classroom. Rather than the "smartest" kid winning each time, which usually causes my students to stray away from the activity, this required some luck and as well as concept comprehension. I call it Linear War.
Based off of the card game War, I decided to make a deck of cards, but mine only had 16. Of these cards there were 4 graphs, 4 equations, 4 tables, and 4 relations. Half of the cards were linear and half were nonlinear. I copied this deck so that everyone in the class had their own. Then, the fun began.
Rules:
This game was definitely a hit in my class. Students kept asking for rematches. That's right, they were ASKING FOR MORE MATH! Not only was it fun, but students were able to practice determining what is a linear and nonlinear function. Plus, since cards used in battle could be 4 different categories, students were able to get a bigger picture understanding about how each method of displaying a function is still connected.
-Rachel Colyer